In 1976, with little local work for strictly Blues bands, I heard through a friend that the new owner of the venerable Park House (where I’d played a few years earlier with Rock Bottom) had renamed the old beer hall Kilroy’s and was looking for a band. Specifically a vintage Rock‘n’Roll band. I don’t think the term retro was being used in this sort of musical context back then and thank the R’n’R gods for that. It’s enough to be vintage without being called retro. I swallowed my pride regarding my age and gave Mike O’Brien a call. OB arranged the gig. We put a band together with former Chessmen lead guitarist and songwriter Rick Golka and a newcomer OB met through Roly Greenway, Crowbar’s bass player, a woman named Jain Dickinson, on vocals and drums. OB was the lead vocalist and played rhythm guitar while Rick blew lead and sang harmonys as either Phil or Don in the numerous Everly Brothers songs we covered, from Bird Dog to Claudette. The audience loved Wake Up Little Suzie. We did lots of Buddy as in Not Fade Away, Oh Boy, Think It Over, Rave On, Peggy Sue. Holly that is.
We called the band Almost Grown after the Chuck Berry song. Yeah, we played lots of Berry,
lots of Sun-era Elvis and, much to my delight, Jain sang tunes by one of my all time
favourites, Hank Ballard. Jain sang The Twist, The Hootchie Kootchie Koo and Sugaree.
This was pre-Brit invasion stuff, ‘50s oldies like Gene Vincent’s Lotta’ Lovin’, Woman Love and his big hit Be-Bop-a-Lula. Jain did tasty versions of Little Richard’s Lucille”and Jimmy Reed’s You Don’t Have To Go as well as duets with OB including Brook Benton and Dinah Washington’s Baby, You’ve Got What It Takes. All of those and many other assorted Rock ‘n Roll, Blues and R&B ditties.
Turned out, we were one of the first Rock ‘n Roll revival bands or as I would prefer, Old School. OB did awesome Elvis, mostly early Sun tunes like Baby Let’s Play House and Baby You’re So Square and RCA stuff like Too Much and Love Me for example. And he wasn’t an Elvis clone—he could just do it vocally.
Hamilton, Ontario, King Street West at Locke Street, the north-east corner, the former Parkhouse Tavern recently renamed Kilroys. The joint is filling up and it’s still an hour away from the band’s first set. It’s been over a year and the place has had a major overhaul including a new stage to accommodate the customers crowding in to hear and dance to the house band, Almost Grown. Rock on!
Here’s the rest of the first version of Almost Grown; Rick Golka, lead guitar and vocals, Jain Dickinson, drums and vocals, Doug Carter, bass and vocals.
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Rick moved on after a couple of months and Stratford’s John Till, from the M&M band days, again joined us on lead guitar to replace Golka. We dropped the Everly Bros. and Buddy Hollly and added some contemporary tunes like David Lyndley’s Mercury Blues and some blues that fit our groove and more Elvis and Chuck as well as a couple of originals written by our friends. Check the band out here. doing an original by Ron Copple, Teachers Pet
Muddy Waters’ Why Do People Act Like That
Homer Banks & Willie Dean Parker’s Ain’t That A Lot of Love
and here’s Jain on vocals with Little Richard’s Lucille
and doing Jimmy Reed’s You Don’t Have To Go
and here’s a duet, one of several Mike and Jain did, Brook Benton and Diane Washington’s Baby, You Got What It Takes
In April of 1977 we went to Thunder Sound in Toronto and recorded Ron Copple’s (Gettin’ My) Ass In Dixie and Steve Caskenette’s Here’s To You, with Guelph’s Ray Fennel replacing Jain on drums but sang back ground tracks. But unfortunately OB couldn’t find a label for them.
Ron Copple’s Ass in Dixie
Steve Caskenette’s Here’s To You
Listen to 2 sets of Almost Grown recorded live at Kilroys, Hamilton. ON in 1977.
https://app.box.com/s/dz87aa7x505dl6he5ikmh81mm645pw7c
https://app.box.com/s/5xi81j7mf70vj2leh00am5x8ezxopih5
All the songs were recorded live except the two recorded at Thunder Sound and should be considered ‘historical documents’. Best listened to through a sound system where the bass and treble can be controlled.
Blues Rockin' Hamilton 